Wing Chun

"Wing Chun History Remember the opening lines from STAR WARS? It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. Wing Chun history is kind of like that, only the galaxy is China, the Empire is the Qing Dynasty, and the swords don't light up. The martial art style that came to be known as Wing Chun originated in a period of civil war that marked the transition between the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The rebellious martial arts monks of Shaolin were hunted down and killed and the temples burned to the ground. Kung fu masters who managed to escape death fled into exile or went into hiding. The rebels trained in secret, inventing new ways to fight the Qing soldiers and exploit weaknesses in their battlefield tactics. One of the fighting systems that emerged from this conflict was a very direct, short-range system that came to be known as Wing Chun. As the system began to spread, legends about its origin were told. Some historians argue that these legends are nothing but fanciful mythology, while some Kung Fu masters claim they are the gospel truth. Because these legends have been passed from teacher to student as an oral history rather than through written documentation, it is practically impossible to confirm or clarify the story of Wing Chun's creation. There are already some great books which take a scholarly look at the differing accounts, so we won't go into that level of detail. For the simple purpose of establishing context, let's just go with the most popular version of the Wing Chun story."